WEBVTT - Let's Draft...with LA Rams General Manager Les Snead (Part 1) 0:00:02.560 --> 0:00:07.760 This is Let's Be Clear with Shannon Doherty. Hi, everyone, 0:00:07.800 --> 0:00:11.280 welcome to another episode of Let's Be Clear with Shannon Doherty. So. 0:00:11.560 --> 0:00:17.800 I have somebody really interesting on the podcast today. He's 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:21.119 a friend of mine, but he's also sort of, in 0:00:21.200 --> 0:00:24.440 my opinion, in most people's opinion, a sports legend. At 0:00:24.440 --> 0:00:29.160 this point, let's need the general manager of my favorite team, 0:00:29.200 --> 0:00:30.320 the Los Angeles Rams. 0:00:31.000 --> 0:00:33.760 Hi, how's it going. I don't know if I'm a legend, 0:00:33.840 --> 0:00:38.240 though I think that's your friend. Okay, there's legends. 0:00:38.280 --> 0:00:40.520 I don't know you're my friend, but you're I think 0:00:41.640 --> 0:00:46.560 everything that you've done with the Rams, particularly this last season, 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:52.600 I personally think it puts you into legend category. 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:55.480 Is this season better than the Super Bowl? No? 0:00:56.080 --> 0:00:59.720 I mean, but that's the thing, right, super Bowl two 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:04.560 thousand twenty two. But so explain to people, because not 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:09.360 everybody understands that how a draft works, and where where 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:13.120 you are in a draft lineup, how teams get to 0:01:13.120 --> 0:01:15.800 pick first, second, third, fourth, fifth, all of that kind 0:01:15.800 --> 0:01:17.280 of stuff. Can you explain that? 0:01:17.800 --> 0:01:21.240 So the NFL is engineered right to try to have 0:01:21.400 --> 0:01:24.240 everyone have a fair chance. So if the better you 0:01:24.319 --> 0:01:27.160 are as a team, the later you pick in each 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:30.240 round there's seven rounds, so there's thirty two teams. If 0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:32.520 you're the best team, if you're the Chiefs this year, 0:01:32.800 --> 0:01:35.520 you pick thirty two. Then the next round you pick 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:39.119 sixty four. The next round sixty four plus thirty two 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:42.360 is about ninety six. The worst team picks first, and 0:01:42.400 --> 0:01:46.039 then somewhere in between. There for the record, Now, what 0:01:46.120 --> 0:01:49.600 we had done in the past to probably compete for 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:52.560 that Super Bowl is trade away a lot of our 0:01:52.600 --> 0:01:57.480 first round picks. So we've spent probably seven years not 0:01:57.640 --> 0:02:02.279 having a first round pick, but living in the second, third, four, fifth, sixth, 0:02:02.320 --> 0:02:02.920 seventh round. 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:06.360 And what round were you for the twenty twenty three season. 0:02:07.120 --> 0:02:08.120 We were in the second. 0:02:07.960 --> 0:02:11.440 Round, and we did the draft house, and like, I 0:02:11.480 --> 0:02:15.280 didn't even understand the concept of a draft house and 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:20.160 how extensive it is. There's computers everywhere. You've got some 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:23.880 people in this room, some people in that room. You know, 0:02:24.120 --> 0:02:28.720 you're floating around, you're checking in on everything, and I 0:02:28.880 --> 0:02:32.880 was kind of blown away by the entire process. And 0:02:32.919 --> 0:02:37.680 then watching how you picked people was incredibly interesting to me, 0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:41.440 and being able to actually get them. You have a board, 0:02:42.280 --> 0:02:44.240 get a board, you have a board, you have a 0:02:44.240 --> 0:02:45.760 whole system. 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:48.160 For your listeners. If you've ever played a sport in 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:51.600 the backyard in your hometown, did you ever play kickball 0:02:51.720 --> 0:02:53.720 or something, or you're at school and you go, you 0:02:53.800 --> 0:02:54.320 know what, I. 0:02:54.280 --> 0:02:56.720 Was an athlete growing up there, I as you was one. 0:02:56.919 --> 0:03:00.160 It's very similar to being in your hometown and you're 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:02.919 going to play a pickup game of basketball and you go, 0:03:03.040 --> 0:03:07.359 you know what, I'm picking Shannon first, and then somebody else. 0:03:07.480 --> 0:03:11.079 Pretty nice, they pretty much know that they're going to 0:03:11.120 --> 0:03:13.520 pick someone else second, and then you know, you flip 0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:15.600 a coin and who gets the first pick. But it's 0:03:15.720 --> 0:03:18.919 very similar. You have your board of how you rate 0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:23.840 football players, and at that point, when the chaos begins 0:03:24.240 --> 0:03:26.440 other people get to pick, you use that board to 0:03:26.440 --> 0:03:30.119 help make your help. Remember all the preparation that went 0:03:30.160 --> 0:03:32.440 into that draft day. So you think about draft is 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:36.760 in late April. It's over three days Thursday night, Friday night, 0:03:36.920 --> 0:03:41.760 Saturday probably afternoon, so there's probably three sixty five minus 0:03:41.800 --> 0:03:44.520 those threes. There's three hundred and sixty two days of 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:49.240 preparation for those three days. But the board represents in 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:52.920 a concise manner all the work that went into each 0:03:52.960 --> 0:03:55.600 of those individuals, and as you know, humans are very 0:03:55.600 --> 0:03:58.800 complex people. Some of them are very skilled at football, 0:03:59.000 --> 0:04:02.200 but because of that complexity, you really really want to 0:04:02.240 --> 0:04:05.320 know the person as well before you make that pick, 0:04:05.360 --> 0:04:09.000 before you draft them, before you bring them on to 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:12.320 help the Rams for at least four years and hopefully beyond. 0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:16.000 I remember you telling me that at the draft house, 0:04:16.040 --> 0:04:18.640 and you were really explaining that, you know, you could 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:24.359 have somebody who's performing exceptionally well, but how important it 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:27.640 is to know the person, what their longevity is, what 0:04:27.680 --> 0:04:30.440 their mindset is. Are they somebody who's going to crumble 0:04:30.520 --> 0:04:34.760 under pressure eventually or not? And it gave me a 0:04:34.800 --> 0:04:37.160 lot of pause because I don't know if a lot 0:04:37.200 --> 0:04:41.240 of other teams view it that way. Where and you 0:04:41.279 --> 0:04:43.520 know your category is if I'm allowed to talk about 0:04:43.760 --> 0:04:44.080 some of. 0:04:44.000 --> 0:04:46.640 Your categories, I can tell you this for the last 0:04:46.680 --> 0:04:49.719 three hundred and sixty five days, what you came into 0:04:49.760 --> 0:04:52.120 the if you call it our draft house, our draft room, 0:04:52.279 --> 0:04:55.040 and noticed we've discussed that for three hundred and sixty 0:04:55.040 --> 0:04:58.520 five days, probably not everyone, but the people that heard it, go, oh, 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:02.160 would Shannon like to date this person? So you can 0:05:02.160 --> 0:05:02.640 go from there. 0:05:02.680 --> 0:05:05.160 Okay, well we're going to get into that in one second, 0:05:05.240 --> 0:05:08.000 because yeah, we'll get. 0:05:07.839 --> 0:05:10.640 Into the category. Yes, it's a tease for the audience. 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:13.159 Yeah, we're getting there, We're getting there, We're getting there. 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:18.440 So I would say you picked some diamonds in the rough, 0:05:18.839 --> 0:05:21.800 or maybe to the outside world you picked some diamonds 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:25.280 in the rough, but because of this board, perhaps they 0:05:25.279 --> 0:05:28.000 weren't diamonds in the rough to you. Like Puka for instance, 0:05:28.120 --> 0:05:29.600 was he a diamond in the rough? 0:05:30.040 --> 0:05:34.080 Considering where he was drafted? Fifth round? So against seven 0:05:34.279 --> 0:05:37.400 seven rounds, he's five, there's only two left in the draft, 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:41.840 and for him to go and basically break all the 0:05:41.920 --> 0:05:45.600 rookie receiving records based on the results he had it 0:05:46.040 --> 0:05:49.440 during his rookie year, he would be considered a diming 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:52.720 in the rough, not necessarily for the Rams. And I 0:05:53.160 --> 0:05:56.559 can't even say this. Every team in the NFL knew 0:05:56.560 --> 0:06:00.680 about Puka and they probably had him somewhere on their 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:02.800 draft board. Now, at the end of the day, we 0:06:02.839 --> 0:06:08.040 can get into why it was a really really successful 0:06:08.320 --> 0:06:11.880 first year of marriage for us with Puka. But I'm 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:14.120 not going to say no one knew about him, but 0:06:14.600 --> 0:06:17.200 all thirty two teams, including us, chose not to pick 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:19.520 him in the first four rounds. We chose to do 0:06:19.560 --> 0:06:21.320 it in the fifth. Now I'll give you this nugget. 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:23.760 We can go from there. He went to the Combine. 0:06:23.760 --> 0:06:27.320 So the Combines in Indianapolis, and that's where these college 0:06:27.400 --> 0:06:31.039 kids go once a year and they do non football drills. 0:06:31.160 --> 0:06:34.880 So there's no pads, there's no helmets, there's no route 0:06:34.920 --> 0:06:37.400 to run, no defender trying to cover him. So, if 0:06:37.440 --> 0:06:40.760 you know, Pokah is a very big, strong human being 0:06:40.760 --> 0:06:44.840 at receiver, so he is better since we're in La Lakers. 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:47.320 He's one of those guys that the way he gets 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:49.960 open is almost like a basketball player, like a Laker, 0:06:50.400 --> 0:06:53.520 like Shaquille O'Neill bodying up someone and getting a rebound. 0:06:53.960 --> 0:06:57.000 So point being is, he goes to Indianapolis and they 0:06:57.240 --> 0:06:59.720 just think about this. They're going to run basically a 0:06:59.800 --> 0:07:01.800 race where you're gonna get a blue ribbon red, you know, 0:07:01.920 --> 0:07:05.919 blue red or yell. He's not the fastest in a 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:09.560 race for forty yards. So because of that knowledge and 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:13.000 over the years of knowing that the slower receiver is 0:07:13.080 --> 0:07:17.120 usually the later, he goes in the draft. But because 0:07:17.120 --> 0:07:18.880 of that, we knew we probably could pick some other 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:22.880 players before him. But we definitely wanted to pick Puoka 0:07:23.200 --> 0:07:25.920 at some point now based on the way he played, 0:07:26.200 --> 0:07:28.760 should have picked him earlier, should at least picked him 0:07:28.760 --> 0:07:29.960 in the fourth round. 0:07:30.040 --> 0:07:32.560 Right, I mean, he did insane things, but you also 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:35.840 picked you know other what I would perceive for diamonds 0:07:35.840 --> 0:07:37.760 in the rough lake, I don't know. When I saw 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:40.720 the team put together, I just like, wow, Like that's 0:07:40.920 --> 0:07:42.200 that's a really interesting. 0:07:43.040 --> 0:07:47.080 Yeah, cool thing about that rookie group. Kobe Turner drafted 0:07:47.080 --> 0:07:50.080 in the third round, Pookah in the fifth. They both 0:07:50.160 --> 0:07:55.440 finished let's call it second for an individual award to 0:07:55.640 --> 0:07:57.880 two players who were picked in the first round, So 0:07:57.920 --> 0:08:01.760 they both finished offensive rookie. They're Pukah second to c. J. 0:08:01.920 --> 0:08:05.880 Stroud who was Houston's QB, and Kobe to Will Anderson, 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:09.360 who was also Houston's you know, outside linebacker. Point being, 0:08:09.400 --> 0:08:11.760 both of those players were probably picked in the top 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:14.880 ten players of the draft, so usually those guys are 0:08:14.920 --> 0:08:18.840 expected to probably win those type of awards. But so 0:08:19.040 --> 0:08:21.960 it is neat that those two players, being you know 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:24.160 where they were picked, if you want to call it, 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:26.040 diamonds in the rough came in and said, wait a minute, 0:08:26.040 --> 0:08:28.920 look at me. Remember me, I can play football too. 0:08:28.920 --> 0:08:31.360 So it's meat and they did. I think the entire 0:08:31.920 --> 0:08:34.920 group of rookies that you had did an exceptional job 0:08:35.480 --> 0:08:38.000 in this season for the most part. Obviously, Puka stood 0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:41.600 out because our mutual friend Christy oh yeah, like just 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:44.280 loves him, loves him, loves him, loves him. So it 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:48.920 was adopted, adopted him, like started making him food. Well, 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:51.240 what are the Hawaiian dish? 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:55.440 Oh yeah, the Hawaiian basically sushi made of spam. I 0:08:55.440 --> 0:08:58.360 mean the moment she made Puka. 0:08:58.120 --> 0:09:03.719 That, yes, Christy and Pooka bonded over their spam sushi 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:05.480 thing that she made him all the time. 0:09:05.640 --> 0:09:08.240 We can get into Christie, but that's Christy being Christy, 0:09:08.320 --> 0:09:11.040 but Puka really appreciate. I can say this and we 0:09:11.080 --> 0:09:14.640 can get to it. It's the neat thing. Football is 0:09:15.040 --> 0:09:17.079 very similar to life, let's call it. We've got a 0:09:17.120 --> 0:09:19.880 lot of veteran players a little bit older in life 0:09:19.920 --> 0:09:22.440 and end of the day, right when you play into 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:27.600 year seven, eight, nine, ten, you've pretty much made it, 0:09:27.679 --> 0:09:31.520 gotten a second contract, maybe even a third. Different levels 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:35.240 of let's call it football money and wealth, but set 0:09:35.240 --> 0:09:37.720 for a lot of families. But the neat thing is 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:42.400 just like life. Those players, they're veterans. They got a 0:09:42.440 --> 0:09:45.439 lot of noise in life, right, based on going through 0:09:45.960 --> 0:09:49.760 stuff that happens in life. You know, relationships that come 0:09:49.800 --> 0:09:53.240 and go, and let's call it parents that may come 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:56.800 and go. So they're just going through stuff, even though 0:09:56.840 --> 0:09:58.520 you look at them on Sundays and go, oh, they're 0:09:58.520 --> 0:10:02.600 football players are having fun. But these rookies, it's like, 0:10:02.960 --> 0:10:05.920 wait a minute, they had made it, they had reached 0:10:06.000 --> 0:10:09.000 their dream, you know. So it's probably similar to your 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:13.280 business where you could be a first time actress. You've 0:10:13.360 --> 0:10:14.840 kind of made it and it's the first time your 0:10:14.880 --> 0:10:15.800 own set with this. 0:10:16.000 --> 0:10:18.200 It's exciting twenty years yeah. 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:21.640 Actor actress. But maybe they're You're like, wow, why are 0:10:21.640 --> 0:10:22.960 they not as excited about the. 0:10:23.120 --> 0:10:25.160 Way they're calm? They don't have a lot of nerves. 0:10:25.200 --> 0:10:28.320 They're used to it. And I'm like the hungry young 0:10:28.360 --> 0:10:32.280 buck that's like so stoked that I'm even there that 0:10:32.440 --> 0:10:35.960 maybe I try so much harder versus now. So I 0:10:36.000 --> 0:10:39.080 get what you're saying. Like the veterans, they're used to it. 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:41.600 It's routine. It doesn't mean that they don't have passion 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:44.360 for it still, but you know, they've seen a lot 0:10:44.440 --> 0:10:46.800 and by the way, the older you get, the more 0:10:46.840 --> 0:10:50.720 prone to injuries you are. I would imagine for me 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:53.480 there would be a little bit of fear there that 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:56.120 I know that the veterans must have to sort of 0:10:56.280 --> 0:10:58.800 psyche themselves out of of like, oh my god, you know, 0:10:59.320 --> 0:11:00.719 I don't want to get injured. I don't want to 0:11:00.720 --> 0:11:02.320 get sacked too hard. I don't want this. I don't 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:04.240 want that because then if it's a serious injury, it 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:07.040 puts them out of their career. They're done. Whereas the rookies, 0:11:07.520 --> 0:11:09.199 are they even thinking about stuff like that? 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:12.600 Are they They're like, there was this energy that was 0:11:12.720 --> 0:11:16.760 very contagious and ignited, ignited us to have a let's 0:11:16.800 --> 0:11:20.960 call overchief from a season standpoint, Yeah, and it was 0:11:20.960 --> 0:11:22.959 pretty cool to take what they did on the field. 0:11:22.960 --> 0:11:25.720 That's important. They kind of what they brought, you know, 0:11:26.160 --> 0:11:28.360 in what we call the locker room right where you know, 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:31.160 there's fifty three men from a lot of different places, 0:11:31.160 --> 0:11:35.360 a lot of different sociological backgrounds, ages, the whole deal, 0:11:35.440 --> 0:11:38.040 from all over the all over the United States. I 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:40.400 think Jason Kelsey and we won't he just had a 0:11:40.440 --> 0:11:42.920 great retirement speech, but he said the NFL is like 0:11:42.960 --> 0:11:46.760 a place where a guy who went to Stanford can 0:11:46.880 --> 0:11:50.800 basically line up beside a guy who basically went to 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:55.400 Kilgore Junior College in Texas and partner with each other 0:11:55.480 --> 0:11:59.960 for however many years the equals and work together. It's 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:02.440 it's a cool thing. But that's what I remember about 0:12:02.440 --> 0:12:03.360 this rookie class. 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:15.160 That's pretty cool. I mean, you have experienced because you 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:16.199 were a football player. 0:12:17.280 --> 0:12:21.360 Yes, not a legend, but that's the I don't know, 0:12:21.760 --> 0:12:25.840 weren't you really The answer was probably maybe in high school. 0:12:25.880 --> 0:12:27.840 Then you get to the next level of the video 0:12:28.000 --> 0:12:31.480 game and you realize you're not as good. A lot 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:35.480 of times, people in my job or coaching, we weren't 0:12:35.480 --> 0:12:37.560 really good enough to play in the NFL, but we 0:12:37.640 --> 0:12:41.840 still had a passion for football, and here we are 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:45.600 doing this. So usually the better players play than some 0:12:45.679 --> 0:12:48.240 of us who play. We kind of get weeded out 0:12:48.240 --> 0:12:50.120 and it's time for you to hang up the cleats 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:50.600 and helmet. 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:55.640 And so then you became a scout, right right, So 0:12:55.679 --> 0:12:57.319 how did you go from being a scout? And I 0:12:57.320 --> 0:13:01.160 think you were a scout with two different teams, The Jaguars. 0:13:00.880 --> 0:13:03.160 J WARS was first dam Jacksonville j Wars. 0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:06.400 And who was the second Atlanta Falcons Atlanta Falcons. So 0:13:06.559 --> 0:13:09.760 how did you go from being a scout to a 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:10.600 general manager? 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:14.280 You know that two things. Probably a lot of luck. 0:13:14.920 --> 0:13:17.720 And I mean that obviously there's a lot of people 0:13:17.720 --> 0:13:20.720 in the NFL who probably have the potential to be 0:13:20.760 --> 0:13:23.760 a general manager. And then when I get into luck, 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:27.840 is you're fortunate enough to be around a collective that 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:32.360 at that moment is succeeding. I often say around lucky 0:13:32.440 --> 0:13:33.880 enough to be a part of a team that has 0:13:33.880 --> 0:13:37.319 a really good quarterback. So in Atlanta we had Matt Ryan. 0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:41.560 Now I was a part of selecting Matt Ryan, things 0:13:41.600 --> 0:13:43.840 like that, but at the end of the day, because 0:13:43.880 --> 0:13:47.480 of his success, because of our success in Atlanta, what 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:50.880 ends up happening is is other NFL teams who aren't 0:13:50.920 --> 0:13:55.680 as successful in that moment in time, they try they 0:13:55.760 --> 0:13:58.640 want to replicate success. They're not having as much success, 0:13:58.679 --> 0:14:01.439 so they start looking at teams that have had success, 0:14:01.440 --> 0:14:04.800 and is there anyone in that organization right that can 0:14:05.040 --> 0:14:08.920 come to our organization maybe ignite it. So, I humbly say, 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:11.280 in so many years in it, you realize how lucky 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:13.839 you are, even though, like the old age is when 0:14:13.880 --> 0:14:17.000 you get that break or you get that lucky opportunity, 0:14:17.320 --> 0:14:20.640 it's best to have prepared so that you have a 0:14:20.720 --> 0:14:22.960 chance to maybe interview for one of those jobs and 0:14:23.000 --> 0:14:25.240 if you if you actually win that job, actually have 0:14:25.280 --> 0:14:26.760 a chance to be successful. 0:14:26.400 --> 0:14:29.160 Right because luck only lasts so long. Luck always sort 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:31.600 of runs out, and what you have to you have 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:35.720 to back it up with knowledge and talent and ability, 0:14:36.160 --> 0:14:40.040 which you obviously did because you've been doing it for 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:40.320 a bit. 0:14:40.400 --> 0:14:43.200 Yeah, I think it's interesting. It's one of those. It's 0:14:43.200 --> 0:14:45.880 probably one. It's a very niche career to go into 0:14:46.560 --> 0:14:47.880 a lot of times, right, if you want to get 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:50.520 in your business, you're going to start as a no. One. 0:14:50.560 --> 0:14:53.600 So there is a lot of wait a minute, I'm 0:14:53.640 --> 0:14:57.640 not going to go to law school and take that 0:14:57.760 --> 0:15:00.960 type of path, which it probably there's a little bit 0:15:00.960 --> 0:15:03.280 more structure to it. Right, You go to a law school, 0:15:03.320 --> 0:15:05.480 you come out, you go to a law firm. If 0:15:05.480 --> 0:15:07.400 you actually work hard and good at what you do. 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:10.600 So now you're really like, wait a minute, I really 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:15.720 for some reason love doing this version of art and 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:18.520 you take a risk. There's not a lot of money 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:21.760 early in it, because there are a lot of times 0:15:21.760 --> 0:15:26.360 in the football ecosystem instead of waiting tables and trying 0:15:26.400 --> 0:15:30.600 to memorize lines and win a job for a role 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:33.640 on television or a play or a movie. There is 0:15:33.680 --> 0:15:35.440 a little more structure in football, but what they call 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:38.840 there's there's kind of these entry level jobs which do 0:15:38.960 --> 0:15:41.400 not pay a lot, but at the end of the day, 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:44.640 if you pay your dues, if you work hard, persevere 0:15:44.720 --> 0:15:47.080 and persevere to gain the experience, and at the end 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:50.120 of the day, once you have this subset of experience, right, 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:52.240 you grow up playing football, in my case, grew up 0:15:52.240 --> 0:15:54.440 playing football. At one time, I was thinking about med 0:15:54.440 --> 0:15:57.280 school and a lot of people will ask how do 0:15:57.360 --> 0:16:01.040 I get into football? How to become a writing And 0:16:01.040 --> 0:16:02.680 now I'm going, you know, I say, you got to 0:16:02.720 --> 0:16:05.600 get a PhD in football, But at the end of 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:08.560 the day, I'm not sure I would recommend that because 0:16:09.240 --> 0:16:11.920 you can get a PhD in something, and usually there's 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:13.880 there's kind of a structured job. 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:14.520 There's a job. 0:16:15.320 --> 0:16:17.440 They may pay different levels, but the end of the day, 0:16:17.440 --> 0:16:20.600 if you go to med school and you probably become 0:16:20.640 --> 0:16:24.440 a doctor, you get a PhD in football, where does 0:16:24.440 --> 0:16:25.040 it lead. 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:27.200 It's definitely it can be a crap shoot. 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:28.280 Definitely a crap. 0:16:28.280 --> 0:16:32.360 Shoot, Yeah, you're gambling, but you're gambling on yourself, which 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:35.640 to me, I think that there there are certain personalities. 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:38.920 I always say to people that ten out of ten, 0:16:38.920 --> 0:16:41.400 I'm going to gamble on myself just because I know 0:16:41.440 --> 0:16:43.800 that my I know my ambition, I know my drive, 0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:46.880 I know my work ethic and I think the same 0:16:46.960 --> 0:16:49.320 review and we have a lot of we talked about this, 0:16:49.360 --> 0:16:52.360 We have a lot of similarities in our personalities. And 0:16:52.600 --> 0:16:54.800 I feel like you're the guy who who's like, yeah, 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:56.040 I'm going to gamble on myself. 0:16:56.400 --> 0:16:59.680 Definitely. Here here's what's really neat where it probably ties 0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:04.399 again early in your career in late you're betting on yourself. Young, 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:08.080 neat thing. You're probably not mayrior, you probably don't have 0:17:08.119 --> 0:17:09.920 a family, there's not a lot of mouths to feed. 0:17:09.960 --> 0:17:13.360 You can live off not much, but you're betting on yourself. 0:17:13.640 --> 0:17:18.320 So fast forward that fifteen twenty years later and you 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:21.159 to become a general manager. But now you have the 0:17:21.200 --> 0:17:26.399 responsibility of a team that's in Los Angeles. That was 0:17:26.440 --> 0:17:30.320 coming back to Los Angeles that while it was going 0:17:30.359 --> 0:17:33.320 to be really neat for the NFL for after so 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:36.400 many years of not being in Los Angeles, coming back 0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:40.080 and succeeding here. Whether it's somewhere coded in your DNA 0:17:40.240 --> 0:17:42.440 probably is a little bit, Whether it's those experience of 0:17:42.520 --> 0:17:45.439 betting yourself, betting on yourself early when there was really 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:47.199 you didn't really know if there was a pot of 0:17:47.200 --> 0:17:49.879 gold on the other end of the rainbow. You know, 0:17:49.920 --> 0:17:52.359 you're not really sure if you're going to be successful 0:17:52.400 --> 0:17:55.560 or not. But you're definitely responsible for the Los Angeles 0:17:55.600 --> 0:17:58.719 Rams being successful. So I think that really those early days, 0:17:58.840 --> 0:18:02.120 middle days that lead to here kind of make that pressure, 0:18:02.320 --> 0:18:07.200 that responsibility probably feel a less less heavier than some would. 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:10.800 Think, right like you and Sean Theay, the coach of 0:18:10.800 --> 0:18:14.960 the Rams. You guys seemed very tight and very much 0:18:15.000 --> 0:18:17.480 a team. At what point did you two meet and 0:18:17.680 --> 0:18:18.720 form that bond. 0:18:18.920 --> 0:18:21.960 Well, it was really during the when we were interviewing 0:18:22.040 --> 0:18:23.600 him to become our head coach. 0:18:24.000 --> 0:18:25.719 So you were already general manager. 0:18:25.760 --> 0:18:29.399 I was already general manager, and we had been in St. Louis. 0:18:29.480 --> 0:18:32.879 We relocated to Los Angeles in twenty sixteen too, and 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:36.320 we didn't succeed. Twenty sixteen was a bad year, and 0:18:36.440 --> 0:18:38.280 at that point in time, I was very fortunate their 0:18:38.359 --> 0:18:41.520 ownership allowed me to that they saw enough of me 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:44.240 to go, we're going to give you a shot to 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:46.760 be a part of continuing with the Rams and help 0:18:46.840 --> 0:18:49.320 hire the new head football coach that you were going 0:18:49.400 --> 0:18:52.200 to partner with. So that was really the first time 0:18:52.560 --> 0:18:55.720 we met. Shawn's really one of those wiz kids in 0:18:55.800 --> 0:18:58.120 terms of when we hired him to be our head 0:18:58.119 --> 0:19:02.160 football coach. He was thirty years all young, I mean 0:19:02.160 --> 0:19:05.119 that is young, and but he was really good at 0:19:05.160 --> 0:19:08.080 what he did in terms of calling offensive play. So 0:19:08.400 --> 0:19:11.760 he's the guy in charge of if you watch football right, 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:14.960 the offense has the ball and they run a play, 0:19:14.960 --> 0:19:17.520 they go back to the huddle and someone calls a 0:19:17.560 --> 0:19:21.000 play into the QB and they go run another play. 0:19:21.080 --> 0:19:24.520 But it's all basically a chess match, some version of 0:19:24.560 --> 0:19:27.680 a poker match where there is a lot of strategy involved, 0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:30.239 and he's he was really really good at that, and 0:19:30.280 --> 0:19:32.840 that's normally how you get your shot to be a 0:19:32.880 --> 0:19:34.600 head coach. You're either going to be really good at 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:37.280 being an offensive or defensive coordinator. He was one of those. 0:19:37.320 --> 0:19:40.520 But the new thing is, wow, at thirty years old, 0:19:40.640 --> 0:19:42.959 you could tell. I've often said we either I know, 0:19:43.000 --> 0:19:45.320 we changed your life for the better, but we might 0:19:45.320 --> 0:19:47.480 have ruined it because I you could probably have a 0:19:47.520 --> 0:19:49.400 different story. But a lot of us in our thirties 0:19:50.040 --> 0:19:55.000 didn't have that type of pressure and responsibility. I mean, 0:19:55.119 --> 0:19:56.800 you kind of got to live your thirties like to. 0:19:57.920 --> 0:20:00.600 I do nothing but pressure in my twenti and thirties. 0:20:00.640 --> 0:20:02.800 But yeah, you signed up for it. That's what I did. 0:20:02.880 --> 0:20:03.399 I signed up. 0:20:03.600 --> 0:20:06.800 So that's where you could probably relate to Sean for sure, right, 0:20:06.880 --> 0:20:11.960 being that young, but also caring, right, having the responsibility 0:20:11.960 --> 0:20:15.800 of helping a television show, being really, really, really successful. 0:20:16.080 --> 0:20:18.879 Like I never see him on the sidelines getting really 0:20:18.880 --> 0:20:22.200 worked up, and I watch a large majority of the games, 0:20:22.280 --> 0:20:25.359 and I've never really seen him like lose his shit. 0:20:25.680 --> 0:20:29.199 I do know some people are doing well. I mean 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:32.280 it's probably it's probably you know, you're exactly. 0:20:32.000 --> 0:20:34.560 Right on the sideline in the heat of pressure. He 0:20:34.680 --> 0:20:37.520 is very, very skilled to be able to be that poise, 0:20:37.600 --> 0:20:41.040 be that calm, be able to assess what's going on 0:20:41.080 --> 0:20:43.960 in real time and right call the right plays. 0:20:44.440 --> 0:20:45.280 But you're the same way. 0:20:45.520 --> 0:20:48.800 I am the same way. But his job's going to entail. 0:20:49.200 --> 0:20:52.000 Let's call it. Let's call quicker decisions when there's a 0:20:52.040 --> 0:20:54.600 lot of chaos going on my job, and it's one 0:20:54.600 --> 0:20:56.879